THE ‘SEAT RESERVATION FOR WOMEN’ BILL
We must intensify the pressure to have more women and girls in parliaments
The 2025 International Women’s Day (IWD) 2025 was marked yesterday all over the world with the theme, ‘For ALL Women and girls: Rights, Equality, Empowerment’. Instructively, this year’s IWD is coming at a period when the highest legislative organ in Nigeria is embroiled in a sexual harassment allegation between a female member and its presiding officer. Without prejudice to the outcome of the ethics committee’s investigation on the matter, the issue of sexual morality among our high public officials needs to be taken more seriously. By treating sex as sport or entertainment in the public space, the value of womanhood is being reduced. Our women should not be playthings in the hands of those with power, position, money and physical prowess.
Meanwhile, despite the near parity in voter registration by gender, women’s representation in electoral politics in Nigeria is negligible. The House of Representatives Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu is crusading for a change, with a bill on Seat Reservation for Women. It is intended to open the space for women political participation in parliament. “Democracy thrives not merely through elections but through inclusion,” Kalu said at the public presentation of the National Women Leaders Forum’s operational guidelines. “When half of our population remains underrepresented in the halls of power, our democracy is not just weakened—it is incomplete.”
We share Kalu’s position. In Nigeria, women’s representation in competitive politics is shaped by culture and patriarchy. To compound the problem, there are voter’s bias and society’s distrust towards female politicians. Limited resources have also added to shut out many women in politics. That explains why women representation, after more than two and half decades of continuous democratic practice, is still abysmal. Even the Temporary Special Measures bill, co-sponsored by more than 80 House of Representatives members in the ninth assembly failed to make an impression. Representation in parliament is heavily lopsided in favour of men, and sliding. For instance, the number of women in Nigeria’s 10th National Assembly has fallen by 19 per cent compared to the last assembly. Women constitute only 3.6% of the Senate, with just four female senators, and 4.7% (16 women) of the House of Representatives. The highest number of women ever to be elected to the National Assembly is 36 in 2007—nine in the Senate and 27 in the House of Representatives.
Indeed, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Nigeria ranks in the bottom 10 globally in women’s representation in national parliaments. But the poor representation is not restricted to the National Assembly. The situation is far worse in the state houses of assembly across the country. As revealed by recent reports, in 15 states across the country, there is not even a single female lawmaker in their assemblies. This is to say the least, shameful. “The Seat Reservation for Women Bill which I am proud to sponsor, seeks to change this narrative,” said Kalu. “By reserving seats for women in the National and State Assemblies, we aim to dismantle systemic barriers and create a legislature that mirrors the diversity of our nation. This is not about charity—it is about justice, strategy, and national prosperity.”
The campaign is inspired and modelled on successful initiatives in countries such as Rwanda and Senegal, where women’s representation has risen to about 40 per cent, which is above the 35 per cent affirmative action adopted in Beijing in 1995. Nigeria must learn from those countries. Gender equality is not just a human rights issue, it is essential for the achievement of sustainable development and a peaceful, prosperous society. Circumscribing access to opportunities, in this case to parliament for women, who make up about 50 per cent of the population is counterproductive for the development of our society.
As it is, critical stakeholders in Nigeria must come to terms with the fact that our women and girls deserve a better deal. They have proved wrong the erroneous notion imposed by patriarchy that women are inferior to men. We must therefore join the efforts to fight all forms of discrimination that continue to keep them and our country down. For more voices of women to be heard in parliaments across the land, they should be aided to break the “power gap.”
